Obama talks gun control in visit to Minneapolis
February 4, 2013 at 3:49 pm in Worthington Daily Globe
President gives 15-minute speech in front of law enforcement officials
MINNEAPOLIS President Barack Obama says citizens must make their opinions heard on gun violence issues for change to be possible, and Monday he had the support of at least one member of an audience of law enforcement officials, lawmakers and local leaders on that point.
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Left of of this article was the reason for Obama’s visit. He was there for a round table discussion with area leaders and law enforcement.
Quote from the White House article:
That’s been the philosophy here in Minneapolis. A few years back, you suffered a spike in violent crime involving young people. So this city came together. You launched a series of youth initiatives that have reduced the number of young people injured by guns by 40 percent — 40 percent. So when it comes to protecting our children from gun violence, you’ve shown that progress is possible. We’ve still got to deal with the 60 percent that remains, but that 40 percent means lives saved — parents whose hearts aren’t broken, communities that aren’t terrorized and afraid.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/04/preventing-violence-president-obama-asks-americans-stand-and-say-time-its-different
Hot debate. What do you think?
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There are a lot of things that can be done to reduce crime and violence in America. Unfortunately many of those things take real thought and hard choices so instead of doing those things, Politicians try to take guns away from law abiding citizens who’ve done nothing wrong, thereby making no one safer, but giving themselves a chance to pat themselves on the back and pine for the press all while greasing the lobbyist funding mechanism.
It is really disheartening the way our system is working these days. We need term limits in the worst way.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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There is not one Obama/Biden legislated proposal that will, ” try to take guns away from law abiding citizens.”
http://1.usa.gov/14CP10J
Hot debate. What do you think?
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“There is not one Obama/Biden legislated proposal that will, ” try to take guns away from law abiding citizens.”As it should be, according to the seperation of powers in the constituition, it’s not obama or Bidens job to do any legislating at all; but then when did obama care what the constitution says.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Give it a rest, ellamay. We already know you’re not interested in facts. Your Obama-hating diatribes are so tiresome and purposeless.
Please tell us we will not have to listen to your anti-Obama vitriol for the next 4 years! Do you need a hobby?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Whose “diatribes are so tiresome and purposeless.” Oh, sorry I see your hiding again….. Maybe you can borrow bad dogs shovel when he is done digging out.. Ha..
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“Give it a rest, ellamay. We already know you’re not interested in facts. ” We all know eastender, that you are deeply in love with the man you believe is the emperor however, he cannot pass laws, he either signs them or vetoes them. Those ARE the facts, as seen by the recent Court of Appeals ruling on his “recess” appointments. Not diatribes sir, just the facts!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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So on the topic,
What an honor it is that Minnesota is being used as an example for reducing gun violence.
I wish more details were made available on what was done to reduce gun violence.
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The Minneapolis gun violence was almost all caused by criminals who were already TOTALLY BANNED from possessing guns. The guns they possessed were predominantly stolen, not bought at a store or gun show. They lowered the violence by cracking down on the felons with guns. Point is all the gun control placed on legal owners or sellers could of, or would have had any effect here. Neither did the looks of the gun or the size of the clip. I’m sure they told obama that but he forgot to mention the details because they didn’t fit is agenda. That’s the kind of president you have, he will deceive you if you let him!
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Doing a little digging, I found out In 2006, Mayor R.T. Rybak (who’s still in office today) and the city council voted to designate youth violence as a “public health” problem rather than simply an issue for law enforcement, an approach pioneered in Boston in the 90s. The public health approach suggests that youth violence is caused principally by a surrounding environment — lack of adult support, economic incentives to join gangs, easy access to guns — rather than “bad kids” who need to be locked away. The point is to identify the environmental causes in the same way one might identify, say, pollution as a cause of lung disease, and then develop appropriate treatments.
Here’s the Blueprint For Action
http://bit.ly/12xTseK
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Soooo, they focused on the people rather then the guns. The easy access of guns was not the result of a lack of gun control but the result of criminal activity that gun control will not stop. As I said the guns were mostly stolen or obtained in some other manner that is already illegal, no more laws needed. That’s right and obama knows it but he is using these terrible tragedies for what he sees as political gains. Shameful!
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Page 15 from the Blueprint for Action
BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION GOAL #4:
Recognize that violence is learned and can be unlearned by reducing the
impact of violent messages in our media, culture and entertainment.
Recommendations:
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Oops. That didn’t paste right.
Recommendations:
Work with local experts and youth to develop a local public education
campaign to ensure that young people and our entire community see their
roles and responsibilities in stopping violence, while providing the knowledge
and tools to reduce violence and safely intervene when violence occurs.
Recognize that youth violence is a national problem and Minneapolis should
lead the discussion by partnering with other mayors and leaders in other
cities to form a national coalition against youth violence.
Support sensible illegal gun laws and work to change community values
around the acceptance of guns. This includes seeking stronger penalties for
people who sell and distribute illegal guns, and profit from the sale and
distribution of illegal guns to young people.
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Yeah, they say “illegal guns” that means these guns are already illegal. More laws aren’t going to make them more illegal! Enough laws, I’ll tell you we had fewer problems when we had less laws (Freer). How many laws does it take to make illegal, illegal? Almost everybody already knows it’s illegal to take a gun and kill someone. As for the tiny few that don’t know that, a thousand laws will not help; you need to concentrate on the person not the gun! Minneapolis didn’t make new laws they used the ones already there! They maybe saying they would like to increase the penalty for breaking the existing laws but I don’t see them crying for more laws. Do we need an illegal guns law, Ver. 2.0 ?
If I thought more laws would solve this problem I’d be for it, but it’s just not there!
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Obama’s Gun Law: guns that are painted black and have a pistol grip handle will be forbidden. Clips will be forbidden that hold more than X number of bullets. Ok. So if you really want to kill a bunch you will have to get a different looking gun and pickup a few extra clips. Or you can get the color you want down on the corner from a thief. Or if you wait awhile the manufactures will manufacture around this law. They say obama is not an idiot but he sure thinks the American people are! Unfortunately way too many of us are!
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According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 40 percent of criminals obtain their firearms from friends or family and another 40 percent obtain their firearms from illegal sources on the street.
ATF agent Jay Wachtel says that most guns used in crimes are not stolen out of private gun owners’ homes and cars. “Stolen guns account for only about 10% to 15% of guns used in crimes,”
One of the most common ways criminals get guns is through straw purchase sales. A straw purchase occurs when someone who may not legally acquire a firearm, or who wants to do so anonymously, has a companion buy it on their behalf.
Some excerpts from the White House, Now Is The Time
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf
Create serious punishments for gun trafficking: Today, criminals can easily buy guns from
unlicensed dealers, or acquire them with the help of so-called “straw purchasers” who pass the
required background check to buy guns from licensed dealers. But there is no explicit law against
straw purchasing, so straw purchasers and others who traffic guns can often only be prosecuted
for paperwork violations. We cannot allow those who help put guns into the hands of criminals
to get away with just a slap on the wrist. Congress should close these loopholes with new gun
trafficking laws that impose serious penalties for these crimes.
Take executive action to enhance tracing data: When law enforcement recovers a gun
during a criminal investigation, they can trace that gun’s path from its manufacturer, to the dealer
who sold it, to its first purchaser. This gun tracing process helps law enforcement solve violent
crimes by generating leads in specific cases and can reveal gun trafficking patterns when large
amounts of tracing data are combined. However, not all federal law enforcement agencies are
uniformly required to trace all guns they recover and keep in custody. The President will issue a
Presidential Memorandum requiring them to trace all such firearms.
Analyze information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law
enforcement: The Department of Justice will publish an annual report on lost and stolen guns
to ensure that data collected by ATF is available. This report will include state-by-state statistics
about guns reported as missing. Making this data available will provide valuable information to
law enforcement about how to target its resources, and give states and cities the information
they need to pass laws and take other effective steps to make sure that lost and stolen guns are
reported. The Department will also identify best practices that are working today and encourage
states and cities to follow those models.
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That’s a lot of blowing into the wind but none of that will stop or even slow that crazed person from going on his mission. Even if guns were made to difficult for that person to get what would be the next choice of weapons? Track the people that show that inclination early. Provide mental help, Dump the video games and allow some real discipline in schools. I’ll bet you would see better results.
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“…Dump the video games…”. Most people will agree that the “video games” you would be referring to is the 1st person shooter games (currently Modern Warfare series as an example). The 1st person shooter games first became popular with Wolfenstein in 1992.
According to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, in the United States, from September 1986 to September 1990;
At least 71 people (65 students and 6 school employees) had been killed with guns at school.
201 were severely wounded by gun fire.
242 individuals were held hostage at gunpoint.
School shootings have occured all the way back to 1764. Many more school shootings have occured prior to the invention of home video games or even 1st person shooters. Using “video games” to blame GUN violence on, isn’t true and hasn’t been shown to have negative societal impact as a whole.
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The ideas to curb straw purchases of firearms comes from people in the field who deal with this on a regular basis and if they think it could help, why not?
Why wouldn’t a law abiding citizen report a lost or stolen gun? Why wouldn’t a law abiding citizen want to take responsibility for a gun to be sold second hand or given away by subjecting the next owner to the same background check to prevent it from getting into the hands of someone who shouldn’t have one?
If a person is a responsible, mentally stable, law abiding citizen, then there shouldn’t be any problem obtaining firearms.
The video game thing is worth studying.
I also think that’s what the parental ratings are for and I think being subjected to and observing real life violence and bullying have more influence than video games but a study into violent video games and it’s affect on real life violence is something I support because hey, why not?
I can only imagine what real discipline in school means to you.
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All during Obama’s first term I kept hearing that Obama and the congressional Democrats weren’t interested in passing new gun laws. It sure didn’t take long into Obama’s second term for his true gun banning agenda to come out. That wasn’t a surprise to those of us who are NRA members because we were well informed of Obama’s record on guns while he was in Illinois. He and Democrats like Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi would like nothing better than to consfiscate every privately held firearm in the country. That won’t happen if we let our state legislators and congressmen and senators know of our opposition to new gun laws.
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Did you not hear about the school shootings in Newtown, where 26 people were slaughtered?
That horrible incident brought gun control issues to the forefront and forced the President and Congress (Republicans AND Democrats) to react — and to act. Neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney ever discussed gun control during the campaigns. There were bigger issues to address at the time.
Contrary to what some want to believe, there was no “hidden agenda” on the part of the President. I am certain he would prefer to not have to deal with this tragedy — and its aftermath — at this time. Your statements imply some sort of “conspiracy”. That’s not the case. He’s doing what he’s supposed to do… try to address a problem. You’re drinking the NRA Koolaid.
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Obviously you didn’t bother to look up Obama’s voting record as an Illinois state senator well before Newtown. I won’t list all his anti gun voting record but let’s just start with an answer he gave on a voting questionnaire during his first campaign for Illinois senate. He said he would support legislation to ban the manufacture, sale, and possession of handguns by private individuals. Once elected he voted several times against people’s right to defend themselves with firearms. In 2005 he voted to ban nearly all rifle ammunition because he wanted anything larger than .22 rimfire to be classified as illegal “armor piercing ammuntion”. Newtown was just the excuse Obama has been waiting for in his anti-gun crusade on the federal level. He already had a great anti-gun and anti-right to self defense on the state level.
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You are delusional. Obama using Newtown as the “excuse he was waiting for”? Beyond ridiculous!!! Tell that to the relatives of the victims.
Given Illinois’ problems with gun violence, should you even be surprised the legislature was looking at controlling firearms in that state? But, really, who cares about his position as Illinois senator at this point? 8 years later? Look at his presidential campaigns; look at the first 4 years. There was no discussion, or movement, for gun control. He’s working in the here and now, in the real world. You should be, too.
(I have better things to do than to “bother” looking at his voting record back then. Who put you on to this? Some hardcore website? Fox News? The NRA? I doubt you took the initiative on your own.)
Get real, sir. You’re focused on the wrong thing.
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There is not one proposal to take away anyone’s guns. Not from responsible, mentally stable, law abiding citizens anyway.
If you’re all the above, you have nothing to worry about.
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